I've heard it said, let us help you design a layout, SO..

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D&C RR

New Member
I've looked at so many layouts and seen some that look fun and then see a post that states, well, it looks like spaghetti or LET US HELP, so here you go.


Room size=10'8"x14'4"

Givens and Druthers
present era
2 Main lines
a couple of commuter stop areas and a 3 car commuter train
Some switching, not a lot
An in and out rail yard, no dead ends, could it be possible to have a hill that the cars go up, then un-couple and go down different rails to make different trains or, if that doesn't work out there could be a lower level staging area with this setup
A tunnel or 2
A couple of bridges
A trolley line, there is a small line around some lakes here that we like
There are 2 DCC locos, controlled by a bachmann dcc controller, 1 loco & 2 switchers that are DC

The hope is to convert all "engines" to DCC to make it simple.
Right now there are 2 ovals in the room, 1 dcc, 1 dc

I've added a drawing of the room and what the current layout is, the current layout can be scrapped but i do need to keep something up and running to keep the children interested you know.

If you need more info, ask away.

Thank you very much.
D&C RR
 


You have the potential for so much more. Practice on paper and sketch, sketch, sketch. You'll be amazed at what you can come up with. Right now, you have two loops with a single spur. That will get boring real quick.
 
So basically - you are planning to sit back, and wait for someone to offer you a menu of ready made custom designs for your room, from which you will pick one?

I would suggest trying to make a start on a design yourself, and then ask for comments and suggestions on your first design.

People are usually willing to offer suggestions, but I don't know of anyone who is offering to do custom designs from scratch, free of charge.

Smile,
Stein
 
Are you ok to overlap windows and closet doors? I think you mentioned HO in another thread, so I'll assume that's your scale.

Your suggested big loop would require a duck under. In your space you could probably do a loop to loop or 'folded dog bone' (I think that's what it's called), and avoid having to duck under anything.

Check out this layout plan as a concept/example, keeping in mind that there would need to be heavy modifications in order to make it easily accessible without needing access hatches and such.

http://www.all-model-railroading.co.uk/amr/tp.htm

His door was probably on the bottom long wall and swung to the left short wall. He might have even had open space on those two sides as well, judging by the reference camera angles. But that style of layout could work in your space up against the wall. So long as the loop areas were projected into the room you would have access to 3 sides which is all you need.

However, if you're comfortable with a duck under or removable bridge section it's perfectly ok to have a loop around all the walls. Just don't forget you can have a peninsula jut into the room for added layout real estate. NYC George is in the process of replacing his rudimentary removable duck-unders with scenic'd bridges.

http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21018

Somewhere he has layout diagrams I think, or at least better pictures of how his layout is shaped around the room.

The point being, generally we think you can do better running around the walls than filling a table. Around the walls you can use the entire length of the room for a yard / scene, and the curves can all be bigger because they're as far out in the room as they can go, rather than being cramped into the middle. All these things lend to 'bigger railroading'.

Let this thread ride for a while, add some of your own sketches to it, and I think you'll get some good suggestions and designs brewing. But it may take a while to come up with a good starting point.
 
A starting point?

dcrr.png


You should be able to reach pretty much everything there without any awkward access hatches or climbing up on the table :D

That'd support 22" radii on the end loops and you could make the benchwork a few inches bigger and go up to 24" I think. That would allow pretty much anything you buy to run on your layout, even if it doesn't look spectacular it would at least make it around the bends. On one or both of the ends it could spiral/helix down to a lower staging level with plenty of yard tracks, loop around at the other end or come back up.

The hill in the yard you're referring to is a 'hump yard'. I've heard of large clubs building model hump yards with some success. I don't think you have enough room to do it justice. The real ones occupy a large amount of space and require a lot of hardware.

North Little Rock, AR
North Platte, NE
Barstow, CA

There are others but I'm actually under the impression the railroads are decommissioning more hump yards than they're building. The advent of inter-model has really taken a hit on needing to sort the individual cars. They just do everything in containers anymore.
 
That's a lot of stuff going on there. Perhaps we could start with your vision.

From what I read, it looks like you want a present day line with all the bells and whistles.

Let's figure out your mainline first. Are you looking for the mainline to do something, like pick up and set out cars? An interchange between railroads? A specific industry (coal, cement, steel, intermodal, paper, etc.)? A specific area of the country (mountains, desert, midwestern, southern)? A specific railroad (UP, CSX, BNSF, NS, KCS, CN)? Urban or rural? Lots of track and no scenery, or little track and lots of scenery?

If you can start to figure out those answers to those questions, and develop your vision, you can get closer to something you'll be happy with. If you're modeling a specific place, time, and railroad, then the prototype can help guide you with what you're looking to build, including interesting trackwork, industries, scenery, and other elements.
 
I was gonna point out, you don't have enough room for all the things you want. I would leave all the track level, no grades, no crossover tracks, etc. For a double ended yard, it takes a lot of space. You may have to try out a stub ended yard.

I'm sure these guys will help you come up with a solid plan, they are good at this kind of stuff.
 


steinjr-So basically - you are planning to sit back, and wait for someone to offer you a menu of ready made custom designs for your room, from which you will pick one? Didn't hurt to ask.

LoudMusic-THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
Are you ok to overlap windows and closet doors? by overlap do you mean in front of? if so, windows are ok, but not the closet door, need to open at least one of them.

ICG/SOU-Perhaps we could start with your vision. To run trains with my children, era will be present day.
Let's figure out your mainline first. OK, Are you looking for the mainline to do something, like pick up and set out cars? can you explain this more? An interchange between railroads? NO, A specific industry (coal, cement, steel, intermodal, paper, etc.)? I think intermodal. A specific area of the country (mountains, desert, midwestern, southern)? midwestern, A specific railroad (UP, CSX, BNSF, NS, KCS, CN)? BNST & CP, Urban or rural? YEP, Lots of track and no scenery, or little track and lots of scenery? balanced.

I added my first try (using anyrail trail version) but after answering icg/sou questions, "WE" need to add some "industry" don't you think?

My son whats to have a trolley line and i was thinking commuter rail, so that is what the end to end line is, then looking at the "river crossing" it seams to crews up to much real estate, what could i do with it?
 
Are you looking for the mainline to do something, like pick up and set out cars? can you explain this more?
Click to expand...

Sorry. What I meant was do you just want to watch trains run on a single or double main line, or do you want a yard so you can drop off and pick up cars, and then from that yard run a local to different industries?

It sounds like to me you're looking to just run trains. If you add industries, places for the cars to go or come from, then you are creating more operational interest.

Here is an article here which may better try to explain what I'm saying. Layout Vision is helping me with my redesign.
 
With as little exposure to actually running trains as I've had, I can tell you that watching them go around in circles can get boring fairly quickly. Dedicating a room to model trains is a serious commitment and shouldn't be taken lightly or as a brief hobby. If you're going into it that full force you might as well make something that's going to be entertaining for a long time. I highly recommend including the option to include regional switching. A double ended yard would be good for staging full trains to swap out for the main line, but a few industry tracks and a single ended yard can provide fun with switch engines and more interaction with the layout than just ripping the throttle to 11 and watching them scream around the room.

In fact, there is a lot of value to 'switching puzzles'. Beats the heck out of video games (and I'm a pretty hard core video gamer), and provides much needed problem solving skills and PLANNING skills that kids need to develop.
 
I going off of the suggestion that LoadMusic and ICG/SOU provided, I found a layout from Byron Henderson. I'm using AnyRail Trail and I hit the 50 mark.
Could I get someone to add 10 Atlas left #4-#281 and 10 Atlas right #4-282, all of the Atlas crossovers as i don't know what I to use and 30 Atlas 36" #168.

Then if would you look at the Pink "Trolly" line and tell me if the back look would work or not?

Thank you
 
You should be able to ZIP and then post.

FWIW, XTrackCAD doesn't have that limitation, though it is a little harder to learn I guess.
 
D&C RR said:
I guess you can't upload the anyrail file.
Click to expand...

Go into the file option on Anyrail, then SAVE AS. You must create your layout in a JPEG format. It will not be changeable. You can attach an Anyrail4EN file but it can only be opened by someone who is using Anyrail.
 
Umm - what is the similarity (apart from room size) between what you in your first post described as your wishes (double track main - or possibly two different railroads - formulation was "2 main lines", tunnels and bridges, hump yard, modern commuter rail and trolley line) and Byron Henderson's Hoboken Shore Railroad plan - which is a single track point-to-point (with a continuous run sneak-by) rail-marine switching layout with 18-20" minimum radius curves - suitable for 1950s style freight railroading ?

The main decider for whether you will be able to fit a run-around peninsula down the center of your room is curve radius for turn-back curves.

That is decided by what trains you run. Rule of the thumb is that you need a minimum curve radius of 3x the length of your longest rolling stock and all the way up to 5x the length of your longest rolling stock if you plan hand-off coupling on the curve (as in a yard).

For an 80-90 foot car - ie a modern container car or a passenger car, which in H0 scale is just under a foot long, that translates to minimum 3 foot (36") radius, and hence minimum 6 foot diameter at the most bulbous part of the peninsula. Add 2 foot minimum aisles past the peninsula on both sides and you need 10 feet of width just for the peninsula and aisles.

For Byron's layout - if his customer was running pretty much only H0 scale 40' freight cars, cars would be about 5.5" long, and 3x would be 16.5" - so 18-20" radius curves works - especially with easement into the curve, giving a 4 foot wide (at the widest) peninsula, leaving about 7 feet of an 11 foot wide room for two aisles and bench work along the side walls.

If your wish is to run longish modern cars and get a bit of running length by running out on and around a peninsula, you would be well advised to at least seriously consider N scale, where you can divide all measures by about 1.8 (160/87.1). A 36" radius in H0 corresponds to a 20" radius in N scale - making a 4 foot wide (at the widest) run-around peninsula with double track practical in your room size.

Smile,
Stein
 
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